Haverstraw: Dancer offers free lessons at Calvary Baptist Church to give back to community

Ashley Watts will be teaching ballet, tap and liturgical dance at a new free dance academy she is bringing to the Calvary Baptist Church in Haverstraw.
Mark Vergari, mvergari@lohud.com

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Ashley Watts, 28, will be teaching ballet, tap and liturgical dance during a new free dance academy she is starting at the Calvary Baptist Church in Haverstraw. Here she is pictured at the church, Nov. 24, 2018. (Photo: Mark Vergari/The Journal News)Buy Photo

The first time Ashley Watts took the stage as a dancer, she was 5 years old.

Now 28, she is preparing to take on a different kind of role, as the director of the new Chosen at Calvary Dance Academy, which will offer free tap, ballet and liturgical (or praise) lessons to Rockland residents 4 years and older starting in January.

As someone who grew up in a single-parent home in Haverstraw, Watts is grateful her mother was able to provide dance lessons for her and her sister. But she also recognized that so many others don’t have those same opportunities.

“I think about all the kids that are just like me that aren’t as fortunate to be able to at least study one type of dance,” she said. “I come from a single-parent household and you wouldn't be able to tell. I didn't have as much training as I should have but when I'm dancing you can't see that.”

She said making the program free was a priority for her.

“I just wanted to give back,” she said. “There's a lot of talented people, kids, that just don't have the means to express themselves.”

All classes will be held at the Calvary Baptist Church in the Village of Haverstraw. Calvary Baptist is retrofitting a downstairs room into a proper dance studio with mirrors and barres on which the dancers will train.

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Ashley Watts, 28, will be teaching ballet, tap and liturgical dance during a new free dance academy she is starting at the Calvary Baptist Church in Haverstraw. Here she is pictured at the church, Nov. 24, 2018. (Photo: Mark Vergari/The Journal News)

“This is the first major initiative that's largely from our community outreach focus,” Calvary’s Pastor Rev. Greg Merriweather said. “This is one of the ways that we can really invest in the community because it’s going to be free.”

Planning for this project started in the summer after Watts asked about ways she could combine her love of dance with giving back to her church and her community. She discovered she could do that by creating the academy, as well as making it mandatory for anyone taking tap or ballet lessons to also take liturgical dance.

"It is a church-based program and we want to spread the word of God as well," Watts said. “That’s why one of the requirements is you have to take praise. Of course we want to give God our praise.”

Merriweather said this program will not only help people find their passion and gifts, but also address the opportunity divide in Haverstraw.

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Ashley Watts, 28, will be teaching ballet, tap and liturgical dance during a new free dance academy she is starting at the Calvary Baptist Church in Haverstraw. Here she is pictured at the church, Nov. 24, 2018. (Photo: Mark Vergari/The Journal News)

“There are a lot of parents who want their children involved in dance or children who may feel like they want that, but it costs,” he said. “I think sometimes we take for granted the cost of enrolling our children in activities that are really going to develop, expose and mature them, giving them culture. We open up spaces for young people but we don't provide direction and structure. I think this program is going to be the best of both worlds.”

'Everybody has a story'

Watts, who currently dances at the Powerhouse Dance Center in West Haverstraw, said she loves that dance is about learning how to tell your story and share yourself with the world around you. Naturally shy, dance allowed her to open up, she said.

“Everybody has a story,” she said. “You can see past your pain. You can see past where you come from. You convey your story. You don’t have to conform to what society says you have to be.”

Through ballet, she said she learned poise, effective time management, strength and resilience. Tap dancing taught her how to develop her signature and put her own style and flair into dance.

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Ashley Watts, 28, will be teaching ballet, tap and liturgical dance during a new free dance academy she is starting at the Calvary Baptist Church in Haverstraw. Here she is pictured at the church, Nov. 24, 2018. (Photo: Mark Vergari/The Journal News)

“Ballet I think was the hardest for me to learn,” she said. “It’s very rigid. It’s very strict. It teaches you to really take pride in yourself. Tap … it's the complete opposite of ballet. You’re able to put more of your personality into it. Praise is my way of thanking God for everything I have. And there’s no better way to express that then through dance for me because that’s how I tell my story.”

Now she is going to help others tell their stories.

“I’m hoping through this program, it will teach children and adults that you could be whoever you want to be,” she said. “This is your time. This is your moment to write your story. To tell people what you want them to see. What you want them to know.”

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Ashley Watts, 28, will be teaching ballet, tap and liturgical dance during a new free dance academy she is starting at the Calvary Baptist Church in Haverstraw. Here she is pictured at the church, Nov. 24, 2018. (Photo: Mark Vergari/The Journal News)

About the Chosen at Calvary Dance Academy:

The dance academy will offer classes in ballet, tap and liturgical (or praise) dance. Classes will be held once a week. Ballet and tap classes will last an hour on Monday and Friday respectively and liturgical will last 1.5 hours on Saturdays. All patrons who take ballet and/or tap must also take liturgical dance.

The dance academy opens on Jan. 7. Classes will run from September to June (except this first season which will be January to June) with an annual recital in July.

Classes are free to all Rockland County residents from 4 years old and up.

Class sizes will be capped at 15 students per age group. Once the dance section for each age group is full, people who signed up will be added to a waiting list. Students who miss three classes without a valid reason will not be allowed to finish the year and the spot will go to the next person on the waiting list.

There are currently three volunteer instructors, but Watts said anyone else who wants to volunteer, provided they have dance experience and passion, is welcome to reach out. The academy will also take donations that will go to clothing, shoes and equipment for dancers who cannot afford them.

For more information or questions, email calvarydanceacademy@gmail.com.